Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-10-22

1 saw a very intelligent man in Germany,
who had studied the subject of wages in
Germany, and asked him if he would talk
with me. He said, 81 will talk with you
very freely, and l know what you desire.
And l want to tell you it is not
exactly fair condition in Germany to-day,
although you see there are mills every
where" Said /, 81 do, and they look pros
porous" "Well," said he, manufacturing
is not so good as it might be in Germany to-
day; and" said he, "there are manufacturers
in Germany without souls, and they are actu-
ally hiring men and women to-day for any
thing they have a mind to pay them. In one
factory know of they are paving women ~
cents day for their work, while the average
they pay to men in Germany IS not over oo
cents day." / learned from this gentleman
that. in his opinion, the earnings OF the men
in Germany would not average SLID year,
and that the women would not average over
$50 year.
Now. cross over to England, Scotland and
Ireland. Take ireland. You know 1t IS IN
a fearful condition You know that you can
not ride through the estern part of Ireland
without hundreds of men and women follow
ing your carriage for miles asking for pen
ny with which to buy food to appeace their
thousands Of people in Ireland right on the
ragged edge of starvation. You may imag-
inc the state of affairs where there are thous-
ands and hundreds of thousands of men and
women who cannot find employment. Why,
there were 250, 900 small holdings in Ireland,
holdings under landlords. How do they pay
their rent? Why, six, eight, or ten years
ago they used to go over to England and
Scotland, hire out to the farmers IN summer,
earn seven or eight pounds, take it home and
pay their rent, while the wives and little chill
dren were cutivating the half acre, the acre,
or two acres of land which they hired, and
you know that American competition had
killed agriculture in Scotland and Ireland
and that the people out of employment there
are as thick as blsckberries but women do
farm work in Ireland for l6 and Is cents a
day, and are very glad to get it.
Take England. My apinion, from the best
sources | could reach in England, is that the
wages 10 England are not One-half of the
average wages in the United States. | made
some inquiries in Manchester. They told me
there were nearly 10000 women at work In
the cotton mills. Two thirds of the work
being done by women, and that those women
were not averaging $50 year for theiF
wages. And mind you, you have got to
count out the holidays, the sick days, feast.,
fairs, saint DAYS and all that sort of thing,
and when you come down to the net at the
end of the year you will find that the Eng
lish laborer is getting but bagatellic The
men in England according to the best light
could get. are not averaging over Sl25 or
Sl35 year
Take Scotland. / was in in Glasgow, and
felt a profound interest in the Clyde. 1t
laI tod
times since | have been in Congress-the
Clyde and the ship building of the Clyde,
how they could beat US, how we were hand
icapped with tariff. and all that sort of
thing, so took a deep interest 10 the Clyde
went up to Longloan iron works, that cover
80 acres of ground. They were right near
the coal and the iron. The average haul of
coal is two miles and the average cost of the
coal delivered is five shIllings ton; the
blast furnaces are seven, and the average
product is 800 tons of pig iron day.
What are the wages? Laborers, from two
shilings and two pence to two shllllngs
and six pence day. What would a Pittsburg
laborer say to that? Skilled laborers threr
shillings to seven shillings and more OF them
at three shillings than at seven. Coal miners
81. 80 to s.. SO a week boarding themselves.
Iron miners from IS "a to S. 80 week. Pit
hand foremsn-this is one of the high-prlced
fellows, one of the aristocrats-trom So 20 to
SO 80 week. Wages have decseased for
five wears in Glasgow, and Bright said in a
speech that he made, that in Glasgow alone
4 900 families out of over 100, 600 lived each
in one room; and should say from my obs er-
walton that half the men and women in Glas-
gov to-day were out of work
| was in Liverpool for 10 days, and almost
every day used to go down and look at
those docks. | could whistle Yankee Doodle
almost ali over Europe until struck those
docks, and then | was silent. | do believe
they beat anything in the Unit ID States or in
the world. | used to go down there morning
aud afternoon. and | sm safe in saying that
cave seen 500 able bodied men looking hungry
as hungry man looks stalking about those
docks and begging for little work, not get
ting it; coming down after dinner, coming
down after the time men ordinarily eat dinner
their numbers augmented, and beseeching
again for work, 10 cents worth, 20 cents
worth, "any work, for Gods sake, and to
feed my children How can wages be high
where that thing endures?
Mr. Frye has done excellent service to
our people in the exhibit which he has
made of the meagre prices paid for labor in
Europe. The policy OF the democratic
party would bring American labor into
direct competition with the starvation
prices paid working men in the old coun-
tries across the Atlantic; the policy of the
republican party is to protect them from
such disastrous competition and enable
them to live in comfort ahd happiness.